IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Friends work togther to build half meter long cube sticks.

I have some awesome learning to share from Wednesday. Wednesday morning, our class resumed our conversation on how to figure out how big our T-Rex was in real life. Several friends showed us how they had figured out how to mark a half meter by creating sticks of unifix cubes that were 50 cm long. We knew it was important to have this measurement, but we weren’t sure what to do next. We decided to take a closer look at our picture we were working from with the scale. We re-read that 1cm = .5 meters. Lucas asked, “Well how many centimeters is the picture?” Beatrice and Ayden knew, “21!” Then Lucas suggested, “Let’s make 21 sticks and lay them out. That’s how big!” Friends agreed that this would be the best way to represent our T- Rex. They demonstrated teamwork as the entire class enthusiastically began building sticks of equal lengths. Friends problem solved on how to check to make sure the sticks were equal. Some chose to re-measure them with a ruler, some compared them to others, some insisted on counting them each time and made sure they each had the same amount. When we finally had 21, we had a decesion to make. “What now?”

Teamwork!

Addie looks down the row, its getting longer!

Going off of Lucas’ suggestion, friends began taking turns connecting each of the pieces to create one, long line. The kids were paitient as we fixed breaks and troubleshooted directional problems. The cubes began to extend beyond our carpet area, past our word wall, and beyond. Miles enthusiastically predicted, “Its going to go out of the room! Its so big!” And Miles was right, our T-Rex ended up being SO big that it extended out of the classroom. WOW! After admiring our work in the morning, we decided to switch out the breakable cubes for something a little more permanent- tape. We laid down tape in place of the cubes to mark how long the T-Rex was and had fun decorating it with T-Rex-es and dinosaur words. Make sure you come check it out next time you are at school!

Longer!

BreAnna adds a half meter to the dinosaur.

Right out the door!

Tags: arithmetic, capable, collaboration, problem solving, project

Mr. Ward and Melina playing checkers

Shayla, Oliver, and Jonah playing UNO

Ruth and Maxwell playing Chinese Checkers

Each morning, during Free Exploration, the kids have a few choices set out to explore before Morning Meeting.  As I have blogged on other days, the kids are really into chess and checkers.  Today, that love of game playing expanded to Chinese checkers and Uno.  Different friends brought in game boards to play and share with others.  They worked together, took turns, problem solved, and helped on another as they played all the different games.  As Mr. Ward and I looked around the room almost every child was playing a game!  Looking forward, our hope in the next few weeks to start creating games of our own!

It was great to be back in the classroom today after being at a Writer’s Workshop training yesterday! I was happy to see all of the children! Here is an overview of what we did today. . .

Yoga: We learned the sun salutation sequence. See if your student can show you the series of moves that makes up the sun salutation.

Morning Meeting: We are working on using our words to help us solve problems independently.  We learned about BUG statements and we role played some problem solving situations.  Ask your child what a BUG statement is and if they’ve used one.  (Many of them have!)

Reader’s Workshop: We learned our first strategy for when we get stuck on a word: Look for chunks to help you figure it out! Can your child find chunks in a word while they do their reading tonight?

Word Study: I modeled using highlighter tape to find words that rhymed in a rhyming book.  Tomorrow the students will work in partners to do this.

Library: We picked a new book today and the students were able to bring this book home. Be sure to send the book back next Thursday!

Math Workshop: I challenged the students to use a number line as one of their strategies in their math notebooks today.  We made our first strategy poster about using a number line!

De’Onna and Tevona role play problem solving. They high fived after they fixed the problem!

Martavious shares his number line strategy poster!

Playing one of our favorite games in Closing Meeting: ZOOM!

Reading our new books in the library!

A beautiful teachable moment came today in such a natural way during Story Workshop. After I read our story to begin Story Workshop and reviewed our new structure for Story Workshop, many of the children wanted to make final drafts of their stories they started this week. We were not anticipating so many of the students wanting to continue to work on their story so it was a great surprise to see so many students interested in it. I gathered Danielle, Noah, Malachi, and Ashu (four friends who wanted to do a final draft) and we did something called a Peer Critique. We looked at each friend’s first draft as well as their photograph from their planning session. While looking at each friend’s work, the children engaged in a discussion without much prompting from me discussing what they liked about each friend’s work as well as any questions they had. It was such a beautiful moment because they were editing\revising each other’s work but in such a gentle and respectful way! They only had a couple of minutes to work on their final drafts so the bulk of it will be next week, but I was so proud of their discussion as well as how respectful they were to each other!

I am really looking forward to doing this more so we can grow as critical thinkers!!

This week, we have been working to choose our own just right books. This means that students are able to look through books from our classroom library to select some for their personal bag. We have been working hard to learn what a book will look and feel like when it is just right for us and here are the criteria we are using:

-you know most of the words
-you understand most of the words
-you are interested in the topic

If a book meets all three of these, it is just right! Encourage your child to read books that are just right for them at home! The books I sent home last week are just right for your child too! A new reading log and books will come home again starting Monday- this short week was made shorter because I was at a conference on Tuesday!

Abigail reading a just right book.